A New Effort to Punish Iran

The Trump administration is trying to raise the pressure on Iran’s already-sputtering economy — part of the long and somewhat tortured U.S. attempt to find a resolution to the war and pressure Iran into reopening the Strait of Hormuz. World leaders need to “make a decision” between “America and Iran,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday, calling the effort “Operation Economic Outcast,” though just what the operation would entail wasn’t clear. Today’s newsletter looks at how these new sanction threats could play out. Image A bazaar in Tehran last month. Credit... Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times The U.S. tries economic pressure on Iran — again By all accounts, Iran’s economy is in truly terrible shape. In June, my colleague Farnaz Fassihi wrote about the pervasive economic hopelessness across the country. She spoke with a manager of a plastic bottle factory, who said production was shut down and all employees had been furloughed because the factory lacked the raw materials it needed to function. A doctor told her that pharmacies were rationing medicine, and that the Health Ministry had advised doctors to prescribe only essential medications because of shortages. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in . Want all of The Times? Subscribe .